CCTV footage of Sara Sharif’s family at Heathrow Airport in the hours before the schoolgirl was found dead at their home has been shown at her murder trial.
The 10-year-old’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of carrying out a campaign of abuse culminating in her killing on 8 August last year.
All three deny murder, with Batool and Sharif blaming each other for the violence in the family home in Woking, Surrey, and university student Malik claiming he was not involved.
The Old Bailey was on Thursday shown CCTV footage capturing the defendants as they prepared to board a flight to Pakistan on 9 August 2023, a day after Sara died – and just hours before police discovered her dead body in a bunkbed at the Hammond Road property on 10 August.
Surrey Police Investigating Officer Leanne Sherwood presented footage in which the family can be seen walking through Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport on 9 August, passing through departures, queuing for security, going through passport control and going through the boarding gates.
Doorbell footage was also played of the family car reversing out of their driveway on the day that they left for the airport for their flight to Pakistan.
The court was then shown a clip of the family car approaching the barrier of the car park at Heathrow Airport, with the car park ticket confirming the time that they arrived.
Footage from the Co-Op on the High Street in Horsell was also shown to jurors, with Urfan Sharif appearing to enter and leave the shop on the evening of 8 August, believed to be the day that Sara died.
Two days later, police discovered the 10-year-old’s body in a bunkbed after Sharif called from Pakistan to say he had beaten Sara up “too much” for “being naughty”.
Jurors were previously told she suffered more than 70 injuries, including burns and suspected human bite marks, shortly before she was found. She had been strangled until a bone in her neck broke up to three months before she died.
The court heard on Thursday the details of a series of WhatsApp messages between 2020 and 2023, in which Batool relayed to her sister Qandeela Saboohi beatings Sharif had allegedly carried out on Sara.
They were accompanied by pictures of a grim-faced and bruised Sara, with the message: “Look what he’s doing. Delete the pictures.”
Batool repeatedly complained to her sister that Sharif was hitting Sara for being “naughty” “rude and rebellious” and because she had cut up his clothes, hidden keys and torn up documents – even suggesting the schoolgirl had a “jinn in her”.
Ms Saboohi advised her to listen to the Koran, and when Batool talked about going to the police, told her to calm down, jurors were told.
All three defendants, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, have denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between 16 December 2022 and 9 August 2023.
